Digest of Federal Resource Laws of Interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Land Exchanges

Land Exchanges: the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16
U.S.C. 742a - 742j) and the National
Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act (16
U.S.C. 668dd-ee), both as amended, provide the
Service with authority to conduct inter- and intra-state land exchanges. (See the entries under
titles for those Acts.)

In addition, several interstate land exchanges involving the Service have been legislated,
including:

Aerojet Exchange -- Public Law 100-275 (102 Stat. 52), approved March 3, 1988 (also
known as the "Nevada-Florida Land Exchange Authorization Act"), authorized approximately
28,000 acres of BLM land in Nevada to be exchange to the Aerojet-General Corporation for
approximately 4,650 acres of Florida wetlands owned by Aerojet. It specified that the Florida
land would then be sold to the South Florida Water Management District, with the revenue to be
used by the Service for purchase of inholdings at Florida refuges.

Big Cypress Exchange -- Public Law 100-696 (102 Stat. 4577), approved November 18,
1988 (also known as the "Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act"), directed the Secretary to exchange
68.4 acres of land at the Phoenix Indian School in Arizona for 107,800 acres of land in Collier
County, Florida, and $34.9 million, from corporations owned by the Collier family. In addition
to extensive provisions for implementation of the exchange and use of the funds to benefit
Arizona Indian Tribes, the law directed that 80,070 acres of the Florida land be added to the Big
Cypress National Preserve, 5,109 acres be added to the Florida Panther National Wildlife
Refuge, and 19,620 acres be used to establish a new Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife
Refuge.

Santa Rita Exchange -- Public Law 100-696 (at 102 Stat. 4593) also approved an exchange
of lands between the United States and the State of Arizona. In addition to more than 51,000
acres from BLM and Bureau of Reclamation, 2,500 acres of Service lands at Havasu and
Imperial
National Wildlife Refuges were exchanged to the State, in return for 91,600 acres of State lands
at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and extensive acreage elsewhere in the State added
to BLM, Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation jurisdictions.